Sensex declines from 30-month high

New Delhi: India's benchmark stock index retreated from a 30-month high, paring the weekly advance, led by financial companies after Credit Suisse Group AG said the nation's banking stocks are ‘expensive.'

Housing Development Finance Corp., the biggest mortgage lender, retreated from its highest level in at least 19 years. ICICI Bank Ltd., the country's second-largest lender, dropped 1.9 per cent. Credit Suisse said it favours Chinese banks the most among Asian financial stocks. "Valuations are a concern," said Jagannadham Thunuguntla, chief strategist at SMC Capitals Ltd. in New Delhi. "Indian stocks have run ahead of their time."

The Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensitive Index, or Sensex, fell 53.12, or 0.3 per cent, to 18,401.82 in Mumbai, trimming its weekly advance to 1.3 per cent. The S&P CNX Nifty Index on the National Stock Exchange slid 0.2 per cent to 5,530.65. The BSE 200 Index lost 0.1 per cent to 2,357.91.

Housing Development declined 0.8 per cent to 639.95 rupees, its first drop in four days. ICICI Bank lost 1.9 per cent to 994 rupees(Dh 78.74), also retreating for the first day in four. Sanjay Jain and Anand Swaminathan, analysts at Credit Suisse, recommended investors trim their holding in India's banks.

Foreign investment in Indian equities has climbed 56 per cent this year from a year earlier, driving the Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensitive Index to 17.6 times estimated earnings and making it the most expensive benchmark gauge in Asia and Bric markets, which include China, Brazil and Russia.